AMP Help

swansea

I have had a pair of Polk Momo MMC650 for about 6 months now and love them, but i wanted some more sound and power of them so my friend suggested getting an amp and thats all he said lol, so i would like to know what amp's would be good to power those, and i also may be getting another for the back of my car, so i would like some suggestions on an amp to power 2 pairs of the MM650's thankyou and i may also be adding the 4" db polk DB400 and would like them to also run off the amp

Thankyou for reading

thehaens@cox.net

First off - Welcome to the forum Again


If you willing to part with some cash, then you can't go wrong with JL Audio Amps. Over all good sound quality, build, and power.

If you would like to save some cash then you could go with some Clif Design Amps.

I have used both and have had good results.

Regards
Scott

swansea

thehaens@cox.ne wrote:

First off - Welcome to the forum Again


If you willing to part with some cash, then you can't go wrong with JL Audio Amps. Over all good sound quality, build, and power.

If you would like to save some cash then you could go with some Clif Design Amps.

I have used both and have had good results.

Regards
Scott

What kinda of wattage do i need? and please help on amps, i have no idea about car audio, my friend installed the momo's for me so i dont know anything lol

swansea

And i just purchased the db400's so i need the amp to run the following

Polk Momo MM650 (2 paris)

and

Polk Audio db400 (1 pair)

Cheers

MacLeod

I wouldnt worry about 4" speakers. Thats way too many speakers and will mess up your sound. Stick to the front and rears.

As for which amp, just make sure its from a quality manufacturer. MTX, Kicker, JL Audio, Crossfire, Alpine are all very good brands that will cleanly make their rated power and are built well and thats about all an amp can do.

As for wattage, the rated power handling is 80 watts RMS. Dont ever worry about the peak rating, its meaningless. Basically just get a 4 channel amp that makes 65-80 watts RMS per channel. The Polk C400.4 is a perfect choice.

swansea

MacLeod wrote:

I wouldnt worry about 4" speakers. Thats way too many speakers and will mess up your sound. Stick to the front and rears.

.

Ok so should i just stop the order on the polk 4's and just stick with the factory stock 4's?

MacLeod

I wouldnt use the 4's at all.

Too many speakers really wont sound very good. With the same music coming at you from different distances, you get a lot of cancellation which generally wreaks havoc on your SQ. Ideally youd only go with front speakers but 4 is the minimum I would go.

swansea

Would i get the same results from the Profile amp's as i would the Hifonics?

So far I got it down to these amps

Kicker KX350.4 Amp 4 Channel

HIFONICS TX8805 TITAN 880 WATT 4-CH .

Profile California AP1040

Would these be my best options?

I am leaning toward the Profile at moment because its less then 100 buks, but is the quality good and is the instillation easy and will work with my 2 pairs of Polk Momo MM650 with "Power Handling (continuous) 80 w" I think continious also means RMS but im not sure

Cheers

MacLeod

The Profile will make its rated power but the Hifonics and Kicker will exceed their ratings. The Profile is a well built amp that will last quite a while but the Kicker and Hifonics are more powerful and better built. You get what you pay for.

If all you have is $100 then go with the Profile. Of the budget amps, its about the best.

swansea

Alight after some research and looking around i found this amp the
"Kicker KX350.4 Amp 4 Channel"
Is that the way to go?

Cheers

MacLeod

If youre looking at amps by major brand names like Hifonics or Kicker they will all be excellent amps with little difference between them. Pick the one that has the features you want, the power output you want and best fits your budget.

PoweredByDodge

i horribly despise kicker... the kicker 1000w mono amps of 2 years ago didn't even produce their rated power... not even within 10% (at least not on a consistent basis - there will always be variance, but a good manufacturer will "Error" on greater power, not lesser).

i dont know of kicker has improved any but here's my suggestion...

you can never have too much power.

If money were not an issue... here's the order of what I would choose (top = first choice, bottom = last choice, but still a very good choice)

- MTX Thunder 564 --- 70 x 4 at 4 ohms --- $195
- Polk Momo C400.4 --- 75 x 4 at 4 ohms --- $400
- JBL GTO 75.4II --- 104 x 4 at 4 ohms --- $300
- Kenwood KAC 8452 --- 70 x 4 at 4 ohms --- $270
- Hifonics Titan TX 8805 --- 110 x 4 at 4 ohms --- $250

Note - I am personally bias to MTX. The polk C400.4 and the mtx are both absolutely ideal for the 2 sets of components.

If money's an issue... then here's a "economy" list...

- Pioneer GM-6100F --- 60 x 4 at 4 ohms --- $150
- Lightning Audio Bolt B2.400.4 --- 75 x 4 at 4 ohms --- $175
- MTX Thunder 564 --- 70 x 4 at 4 ohms --- $195
- Hifonics Titan TX 8805 --- 110 x 4 at 4 ohms --- $250

I'm no huge pioneer fan, but they do make a respectable product that isn't going to die on you after a week. lightning audio is a subsidiary of rockford fosgate, and while i completely loathe rockford and want them to rot in hell, i have seen many people with lightning audio amplifiers that have enjoyed years of trouble free service from those amps. the bolt series is the base model, but they do make some very high end Storm series amps that are disgustingly expensive competition pieces.

either way - i think the mtx is the best bang for the buck - under 200 dollars, high quality name brand, and the power you need.

my 0.02

oh - and don't even hook up 4" speakers - just cut the wires on the factory ones and leave them there, just use the 2 sets of components... if you wanted to mix in 4" you'd have to set up an intricate crossover network and god knows what else.. don't screw up your sound stage with too many speakers dude.

swansea

Wow, thaxs for your imput Doge i think the MTX are now the way to go lol, and whats the diffrence between component speakers and 2-way (what i have)

Cheers

PoweredByDodge

sorry, i had a little brain ****... i thought u HAD components... but not to worry - the amp reccomendation stays the same.

what's a component? well you know how your 2 ways have the tweeter mounted in the center of the woofer... well with a component set, the tweeter does not go in the middle of the woofer. Rather, the woofer and tweeter can be placed within inches of each other, or several feet apart... it's all up to you. normally, installers will keep the tweeter anywhere from a few inches to 2 feet away from the woofer... it all depends on what car it's going in, etc etc.

typically, component speakers are of a higher build quality and superior design to a coaxial system. they also, typically, handle greater power than their coaxial twins... (example, a 6" coax 2 way may take 60 watts while its component brother may take 80 watts ... due to various reasons, mainly that they're just different models with different design parameters).

we'll even use some pictures - and thanks to polk's good record keeping, we can refer to my favorite polk series, the DX...

dx 6" coaxial 2 way --> http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/products/dx6/

dx 6" component system (2 way) --> http://www.polkaudio.com/caraudio/products/dx3065/

in that second picture - the little blue "golf ball" is the tweeter, and the black square box is the crossover network.

Dizzy_124dvc

PoweredByDodge wrote:

- MTX Thunder 564 --- 70 x 4 at 4 ohms --- $195

Is this at 12v/12.5v or at 14.4volts?

I know on the web it says 14.4v, but older mtx amps also say 14.4v but actually the rating was made at 12v or 12.5v.

1996blackmax

My Thunder564 puts out about 60 watts at 12.5V's.

The rating is 70 x 4 is at 14.4V and 45 watts at 12.5V

PoweredByDodge

there's a new trend in car audio to rate amplifiers on a common playing field... that is - they're all rated at 14.4 v so long as the manufacturer has jumped on the "common specification standard" bandwagon - there's a different name for the whole deal, but that's basically what it is.

not all mfg's have converted to this, but mtx is one of the many that have.

rest assured, you will get more than 70 x 4 at 14.4 - how much more? i don't know - might be 72, might be 80.... its the variance of production... but the MINIMUM you'll get is 70... most likely you'll be in the 75+ range, which is peachy for your needs.

Dizzy_124dvc

PoweredByDodge wrote:

there's a new trend in car audio to rate amplifiers on a common playing field... that is - they're all rated at 14.4 v so long as the manufacturer has jumped on the "common specification standard" bandwagon - there's a different name for the whole deal, but that's basically what it is.

the CEA 2006 standard?

1996blackmax wrote:

My Thunder564 puts out about 60 watts at 12.5V's.

Is this from the birthsheet?

1996blackmax

Sure is .

MacLeod

Yes, its the CEA 2006 standard and I for one whole heartedly support it.

Dizzy_124dvc

Ok thanks guys.

PoweredByDodge

hrmmmm - so that's the name of it... lol.

i agree, it's a good benchmark. it lets you know what you're getting, and you can compare **** evenly.

back in the day you'd have this crap...

brand

---

voltage

mtx

---

12.5
rockford

---

13.8
pioneer

---

14.4
kenwood

---

14.4
jbl

---

14.4
kicker

---

13.5

it was ridiculous. i'd sit there doing friggin proportional fraction calculations, trying to figure out which amp was rated closer to what i was looking for - made me "an angry little man inside".

MacLeod

When looking at major brands like RF or MTX you know youre going to get more than the amp is rated for so if I needed a 50x2 amp I would just get one from them and not worry about the voltage because you know its going to make at least its rating at any voltage.